Tag: albania

MIDDLE EAST SYRIA An explosion in Raqqa injured several people and may have killed at least two on Wednesday, but there have been conflicting reports on what caused the explosion and how many casualties ensued. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says that ISIS suicide bombers attacked a Syrian Democratic Forces office in the city. … Continue reading World update: April 3 2019

CLIMATE CHANGE The United Nations is out with a new Global Environmental Outlook, and I have to say it looks like things are really going to work out great: The United Nations released its sixth Global Environment Outlook report on Wednesday. Its main message, delivered across 740 pages, is straightforward: Human action is degrading the … Continue reading Europe/Americas update: March 13 2019

CLIMATE CHANGE Hey, this seems bad maybe: Global warming is gradually increasing the average temperature of the oceans, but the new research is the first systematic global analysis of ocean heatwaves, when temperatures reach extremes for five days or more. The research found heatwaves are becoming more frequent, prolonged and severe, with the number of … Continue reading Europe/Americas update: March 5 2019

EUROPE NATO Jacobin's Branko Marcetic argues that the reflexive liberal defense of NATO against Donald Trump's behavior is obscuring an important discussion about whether NATO should still exist at all: At best, NATO is a Cold War relic whose attempts to broaden its mission in the twenty-first century have been disastrous failures. At worst, it’s a … Continue reading Europe/Americas update: July 17 2018

EUROPE ALBANIA Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama headed to Berlin on Wednesday to begin European Union accession talks and, in addition to warning that Brussels' failure to expand into the Balkans could leave the region open to Russian influence, had a message for right-wing European populists: From Britain to Hungary, populist parties have made electoral gains … Continue reading Europe/Americas update: April 24-25 2018

ASIA PAKISTAN Pakistan's Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's ban on holding political office also prevents him from serving as leader of his PML-N party. It also nullified all decisions he's taken as party leader since the ban was put in place last year, including candidate selection. This could put … Continue reading World update: February 21 2018

EUROPE CYPRUS Cypriot leaders and UN representatives are meeting in Switzerland on Wednesday for "open-ended" talks to try to settle the island's reunification issues once and for all. As nobody has yet proposed a way to break the main deadlock that currently separates the two sides--Greek Cypriots want Turkey to remove its troops from the … Continue reading Europe/Americas update: June 26 2017